Regular practice estimating volumes will help your students develop effective proportional reasoning. We use this skill when we think about multiplication and division. We also use this skill when we think about fractions. I am working on a whole set of these activities but this is the first in the STAGE 1 set. It will help your students think about fifths. It will help them understand how to mentally divide a length into 5 equal parts. Later sets will focus on dividing a given volume into halves, thirds, quarters and tenths.
The theme of FILL IT TO THE TOP (fifths) is orange juice. Even though you are just discussing a picture card, encourage your students to imagine it is a container of real orange juice. You want to share this juice equally between 5 people.
Develop a simple language routine to discuss the fraction parts. If this is one fifth, how many more fifths do you need to fill this container to the top? If this is two fifths, how many more fifths do you need to fill this container to the top? If this is three fifths, how many more fifths do you need to fill this container to the top? If this is four fifths, how many more fifths do you need to fill this container to the top?
Remember to talk about the full container as five fifths or one whole container full.
This activity is also part of our STAGE 1 Mental Warm-ups.